Adams County’s Child Maltreatment Prevention Framework for Action
Adams County has a higher incidence of child abuse compared to other counties across the state, according to Stephanie Henderson, director of program alignment for the Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County (ECPAC). “For this reason, we already had been working with partners for quite some time on strengthening families. We saw this grant as a next step to help extend our efforts at preventing child abuse.”
To give families in Adams County the additional support they need, ECPAC applied for and received a Child Maltreatment Prevention Framework for Action (Framework) Community Planning Grant in October 2017, putting the county on the front lines of planning efforts aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect, and strengthening families. In addition to financial assistance from the Colorado Office of Early Childhood, the grant included extensive support from Early Milestones Colorado, a nonprofit intermediary that serves as a statewide conduit for best practices and high-impact ideas that promote success for young children and families in Colorado.
Coalition Partners
Child Maltreatment Prevention
Framework for Action
This framework is designed as a tool to guide strategic thinking at the state and local level, about resource investments to prevent child maltreatment and promote child well-being. As this tool is used collectively across the state, the resulting alignment of strategies will maximize the impact on shared outcomes.
Adams County plans to prevent child maltreatment
Adams County’s Child Maltreatment Prevention Framework for Action planning resulted in two primary areas of focus:
Families in Adams County will have access to available, high-quality, and culturally relevant services and supports that promote the strengthening of families.
- Offer family/parenting supports in a more integrated way with existing services toward increased access and utilization by 2020 and beyond.
- Support the community in using inclusive, non-threatening, non-stigmatizing and welcoming messages with families that normalize accessing services or support by 2021 and beyond.
- Ensure supportive policies (institutional, city, county, state) toward increased utilization of services and supports by 2020 and beyond.
Early childhood and family providers will provide high-quality services and supports based on best practices toward prevention.
- Provide training to service providers to increase knowledge, support, and time needed to adequately strengthen families using best practices by 2020 and beyond.